This invention relates to the treatment of Systemic Lupus Erythromatosus (SLE).
SLE is a disease in which the patient produces autoantibody to a wide variety of antigens, but antibody to the patient's own DNA appears to play the dominant role in the pathogenicity of the disease.
Nucleosides have been linked to mouse IgG immunoglobulin in an attempt to make a tolerogenic conjugate, i.e., a conjugate which, when administered to an SLE patient, would inhibit the production of anti-DNA antibodies. Borel et al. (1973) Science 182, 76 reports that nucleosides were used in the attempt to make tolerogens "because it is more feasible to bind free nucleosides to a protein carrier than either double or single stranded DNA."
Papalian et al. (1980) J. Clin Inv. 65, 469 discusses the size, 20-400 base pairs, of DNA recognized by anti-DNA antibodies of SLE patients and says that "[i]nformation from these studies will . . . help to define minimal requirements for the preparation of hapten-specific tolerance to nucleic acid antigens in SLE."
The linking of nucleosides to cells has also been mentioned in the literature. Borel et al. (1980) P.N.A.S. U.S.A. 77(3), 1593 says: "conceivably, oligonucleotides linked to cell surfaces might suppress antibodies to either single or double stranded DNA."
Golan et al. (1971) J. Exptl. Med. 137, 1046 says that "the induction of tolerance . . . may be strongly influenced by [the] carrier moiety", and that "among the various carriers tested, IgG was the most tolerogenic."